Fort Atkinson Health Care Center

Although we gave this facility a terrible overall grade, we awarded it a grade of C for our nursing rating. Our nursing score analyzes the facility's nurse staffing levels. We factor in both the levels of training of those nurses as well as the number of hours spent with patients. This facility provided just 0 hours of nursing care per resident per day. This is a relatively low total compared to most other facilities. Finally, while this nursing home got docked a bit for its nursing hours per resident, it actually excelled in some of our quality-based metrics. With fewer than five percent of its residents experiencing pressure ulcers, it performed remarkably well in this metric.

This nursing home also didn't fare too badly in the category of short-term care. Indeed, we gave it a grade of C for that category, which is among its higher grades. Our short-term care grades are considered to be more important for those requiring rehabilitation services. Rehabilitation generally mandates higher levels of highly-skilled nursing services. This means not just nursing services, but also physical and respiratory therapy, as well as other types of therapy. We were surprised to find that this facility was below average in the two key staffing areas we looked at. The facility offered fewer registered nurse and physical therapist hours per resident than most other nursing homes. It is still important to determine whether this is adversely impacting the quality of care. Finally, we looked at the number of residents that ultimately were able to return home from this facility. We found that 3.6 percent of this facility's residents were able to return home. This figure was quite a bit below the national average.

This nursing home received a grade of just D in the area of inspections. Our inspection grades factor in many items found on the facility's recent inspection reports. If you find too many deficiencies on the inspection reports, this is typically the worst sign. Severe deficiencies indicate a risk to the well being of residents. This particular nursing home was assessed 2 deficiencies by government inspectors. The only favorable thing we found is that none of these deficiencies were in the categories that indicate they posed a risk to patient safety or health. Lastly, this nursing home was cited by CMS for possible abuse or neglect. This is generally a really bad sign. We would never recommend this facility.

The final category we analyzed was long-term care, where this facility received a bottom of the barrel score in this category as well. Unfortunately, we gave it a lowly F in this category, which is definitely somewhat alarming. Facilities that do not fare well in this category typically aren't as well-staffed and are lagging in a few of the areas of routine personal care we looked at. Once we assessed the amount of care provided by nurses, we then analyzed the nursing home's vaccination records. Candidly, we were a bit concerned this facility vaccinated a relatively low 81.42077 percent of its patients against pneumonia. To our surprise, this facility was actually able to limit hospitalizations. With just 0.03 hospitalizations per one thousand long-term resident days, this facility has less hospitalizations than most nursing homes. This is its best score in this category.